feeling for anything connected with his hero except the mathematics and the politics; but of his studied contempt of mere practical information we need give no other instance than that you read the Biographie on till within a few pages of its close, ⚫ without once finding the man designated as a Marquis-and the circumstance is then alluded to only because it was necessary to exalt the merit of Condorcet in moving a resolution of the Legislative Assembly that all patents of nobility, heraldic pedigrees, and other similar records and documents should be collected and burnt by the public executioner.

If we may put any trust in earlier and less worshipful biographers, Condorcet, down to the dawn of the revolution, was rather noted for the importance he attached to the advantages of his birth. The family name was Caritat. They were said to have been of Italian origin, but had been classed for many generations with the gentry of Dauphiny, and took their title from the little town and chateau of Condorcet. His father, however, was a younger brother and captain of horse, and from him the philosopher appears to have inherited little or no fortune.* He was born at Ribemont, in Picardy, A.D. 1743. The Captain died early, and he was left to the guardianship of his mother, whom Arago describes as a devotee of the weakest credulity, and his father's elder brother, the Bishop of Lisieux, a prelate of considerable distinction, and notable not least for his Jesuitic connexions, tenets, and zeal. The lady, not being interfered with at first, devoted her son by some formal act to the special service of the Virgin, and, the better to guard his consecrated infancy, had him clothed like a girl. Till his twelfth year he was constantly disguised in a white frock and petticoat, and had little misses for his only playmates-a probation sufficient, in M. Arago's opinion, to account for some peculiarities both in the physique and the morale of his manhood. The abstinence from all rude, boyish sports, we are told, checked the proper muscular development of his limbs; the head and trunk were on a large scale, but the legs were so

* The utter laxity, under the later reigns at least of the old régime, as to the assumption of all titles below that of Duke, is so notorious that we may be contented with barely alluding to it. Whether the Terre of Condorcet had ever been erected formally into a Marquisat, we cannot say--we only know that no such Marquisate is to be found in the index to Anselme, or any other old Nobiliaire we have been able to examine. We are equally uninformed how, if there was a real Marquisate, the son of a younger brother came to be the titulaire. It is probable that the head of the family being an Ecclesiastic, may have obtained leave to resign the secular honour to his cadet. Whenever M. Arago mentions that gentleman, he calls him merely Captain Caritat-but this may be a bit of republican affectation. With our own radical newspapers the Bishops of London and Exeter are rarely more than Dr. Blomfield and Dr. Philpotts.

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meagre that they seemed unfit to carry what was above them, and in fact he never could partake in any strong exercises or undergo the bodily fatigues to which healthy men willingly expose themselves. On the other hand he had imbibed the tenderheartedness of a delicate damsel-retaining to the last, for example, a deep horror for inflicting pain on the inferior animals. M. Arago quotes more than one letter in which he signifies that tyrannical man makes free with the life of sheep and bullocks merely in consequence of the want of foresight on the part of those victims ;-the inference would be that he never ate beef or mutton-but of such practice the history affords no trace. As to insects, says M. Arago, he never would kill them, unless indeed they occasioned him particular inconvenience ;'-but this, we suspect, might be said of every man in the world except Caligula and the entomologists.

When he had reached his twelfth summer the episcopal uncle protested against the petticoats, and the gracility of his lower fabric was for the first time revealed to common eyes when he removed to the Jesuit seminary at Rheims. The mother wished him to prepare for a clerical career, but the Caritats strongly disapproved of this, and it was settled that he should follow the paternal profession of arms, of which, as the Bishop observed, many of the most illustrious ornaments, Condé, for instance, had been trained under the Company of Jesus. At this school Condorcet made rapid progress-in mathematics especially-and being transferred in 1758 to the college of Navarre at Paris, he there also carried off the highest prizes year after year, and became decidedly the most distinguished of its alumni. One of his prize-essays was read in the presence of D'Alembert, who prophesied that the youth would by and bye be an honour to the Academy. He had become so enamoured of science that he resolved to devote his life to it. No argument was of the least avail. The plan of taking orders was again urged by the mother-and the Bishop now sided with her; but the young gentleman had already adopted liberal notions on the subject of religion, and would on no account listen to them. In a letter to Turgot, of 1775, he states that his creed was settled by the age of seventeen. He appears to have left the college in 1762, and announced his resolution to depend on his own resources-from which it may be inferred that he had seriously displeased the Bishop, though they became good friends afterwards. The Biographie Universelle states that his earliest patron was the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, and that through his influence he soon obtained some pensions:' but M. Arago, though he more than once describes the Duke as his best friend,' makes no allusion

allusion to this circumstance of 'pensions,'-which, if true, is a rather important one.

D'Alembert had never, it seems, lost sight of him, and to his encouragement and advice he now owed much: but his talents were early ripened, and in fact within the next three years he placed his reputation as a man of science as high as it ever was to be. It is no wonder that most exalted anticipations were formed, and we think it quite possible that if he had adhered steadily to his first line of study he might have left a name worthy of ranking with the Lagranges and Laplaces; but there are we believe few who now, measuring his actual attainments, place him in the first class of mathematicians: Arago evidently does not. He had the advantage of appearing at a season very favourable for the exercise of ingenuity, when the Calculus was in rapid development, and there was something for any sharp eye to discover. These eras are the Californias of science: a new source of wealth is opened which the first comers gather-and then follows a period of severer toil and slender gains until a fresh and unwrought region is again disclosed. Condorcet was an eager adventurer, but he found grains rather than lumps, and above all he did not persevere. His chief efforts were directed to extending the scope of the Calculus-to bring it to bear upon cases in which it had previously proved unmanageable. Unfortunately, however, his most ambitious formulæ are precisely those of which the value is most doubtful. He never attempted to apply them himself, and we believe they have not proved of the slightest service to the world. It may, we think, be asserted safely that science would have stood where it does if he had never lived. Skilful analyst as he was, he discovered no new principle-no great step can be ascribed to him. We observe that considerable importance is still attached by some English writers to his Essay on the application of the Calculus to judicial questions. He was not the first who worked on that ground-and if he went much more into detail than the two or three who had preceded him, he has in the sequel been very largely distanced, especially in our own time by Poisson. His treatise is very ingenious, and we may say amusing, but there is a radical flaw in all tentamina of the class-there are not, and never can be, real data for the application of the mathematical theory of probabilities to judicial decisions, or to any other questions in which allowance must be made for the incalculable variety in the talents, attainments, and moral qualities of men. But we do not presume to dissert on a subject as to which those who wish to pursue it can consult a scientific authority so high as M. Arago's. We merely repeat that at best he exhibited sagacity in a comparatively

paratively new application of the theory of probabilities. What immediately concerns us here is that when hardly beyond the limit of manhood, he had already established a brilliant reputation. The Academy of Sciences soon chose him for their Assistant-Secretary. Having filled up with applause a large hiatus in the academical Eloges, he not long afterwards was elected Perpetual Secretaryand in that capacity produced a very extensive series of similar panegyrics, some of which may still have a high degree of interest for a limited class of readers. The emolument of his office was not much, but the position was considered enviable—it gave him every opportunity of familiar intercourse with the lights of philosophy, and through them an easy introduction to the saloons and suppers of the influential ladies who had embraced the doctrines of the sect, and not a few of whom had condescended to form tender connexions among its Coryphæi.

Until 1770 he had continued to give his more serious hours to his mathematics; but very unluckily as we believe for his ultimate fame in the summer of that year his ambition received a new turn. D'Alembert had fallen into a condition of nervous irritability which afflicted all his friends, and grievously alarmed his celebrated amie, Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse. She urged on him the temporary abandonment of his diagrams, and implored Condorcet to find some substitute at the Academy, and undertake the care of the invalid during a winter of Italy. The Secretary agreed to make this sacrifice, and the pair started but their reception at Ferney was so delightful that week after week passed away there until it was thought too late for crossing the Alps, or the restoration of D'Alembert seemed to authorize a return to Paris. This introduction to Voltaire determined the future career of Condorcet. From that time, if he did not lay aside his abstract science, at least he gave up all notion of forwarding its march, and contented himself with noting and recording, in a style of distinguished excellence, the trophies erected by steadier enthusiasts. Voltaire had been much struck with his literary facility, and inoculated him effectually with the passion for philosophical proselytism. In a word, he was now to be one of the most active contributors to the Encyclopédie; and Diderot, &c., became his most intimate companions at Paris, while his correspondence with Ferney continued to the close of Voltaire's life to be close and confidential. The King of Prussia in due time honoured him with many flattering communications. He was recognised throughout Europe as among the ablest agents of the Anti Christian Conspiracy.

Voltaire's Letters seem, in England at least, to be very little read in comparison with some other classes of his writings; and

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we wonder this should be so-for not only are they essential to the understanding of his actual proceedings, but many of them are hardly below any productions of his pen in the felicity of execution. When he is addressing a friend-not a King, or Prince, or great Lady-we may almost always fancy that we hear him talking at his own fireside. The ease and also the elegance are consummate-they are on a par with the undisturbed self-esteem, the unwearied self-seeking, the untameable vivacity and the insatiable malignity of the man. The Letters to Condorcet, and especially the new ones (which it is not difficult to account for Condorcet's suppression of during his lifetime), bring out some peculiar traits-illustrating very satisfactorily the profound selfcontrol, without which no man can maintain himself through a series of years as the head of an energetic party. What Condorcet says (in a note to Turgot) of some of his pamphlets, is especially true of his letters to the juniors of his sect: these things are not done pour la gloire, but pour la cause we must not consider him as author but as apostle;' his heart was in his pen he never lost sight of the purpose.

M. Arago, whose conclusions as to the affairs of stars and their satellites few will question, extols the good nature of Voltaire as shown in these documents: we admire the politeness, the good sense-the far-seeing impervertible adroitness of the venerated chief. He had long before this time commended the saying of a monarch who practised what he preached-L'esprit des hommes puissans consiste à répondre une politesse à une impertinence ;-but this was not a mere matter of manners. He was too wise not to appreciate the importance of such a resident at Paris as he had hit on in Mr. Secretary Condorcet-a sharp, cool-headed man- thoroughly imbued with écrasez l'infâme, but certain, unless his own authorly self-love were involved, to see more clearly than even an Argus at a distance could do, what would be the practical effect of any specific publication at any specific time on the mind of the Parisians. In every one instance accordingly when Condorcet suggests a pause or an alteration, the great leader complies-and that with such apparent frankness and simplicity of tone that we have no doubt many contemporary astronomers put the same interpretation that M. Arago does now on these astutest of rescripts. On the other hand, as M. le Marquis became more and more deeply engaged in the warfare of the Encyclopedists, it was not seldom the part of 'le Vieux de la Montagne'—as by a curious coincidence the founders of the future Mountain called him—to whisper caution from his remote citadel. When he himself in these latter days was resolved to issue anything that he knew and felt to be pregnant with combustion,